BitTorrent Goes Legal with Download Service
In its continuing effort to move away from its roots as a popular method for the decentralized transfer of pirated content, BitTorrent said Monday it had launched a new content network with the help of several television and movie studios.
Called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, the service will feature content from 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.
Those using the network will be allowed to rent movies, as well as purchase television shows and music videos. BitTorrent will also allow user-generated content to be published and shared through the service.
BitTorrent's new venture comes a year and two months after the site came to a deal with Hollywood over bringing the problem of piracy under control.
That move would later result in deals with several movie studios included in Monday's announcement, such as Warner Bros. in May and Fox and Paramount in November.
In total, about 5,000 TV videos will be available, including 40 hours of high-definition programming. Movie rentals will cost $2.99 USD for catalog and $3.99 USD for new releases, while TV shows and music videos are priced at $1.99 USD per download. Pricing was not announced for HD content.
"The BitTorrent Entertainment Network is created by and for the BitTorrent Generation, which has a vast appetite for high-quality, on-demand entertainment," BitTorrent co-founder and president Ashwin Navin said. "Our uniqueness lies in the strength of our community, delivery technology, and the industry's most comprehensive catalog of digital content."
Keeping in step with its free past, the company also said it plans to include free and DRM-less content, allowing use of the service on all platforms.
Not everyone is sold on the idea, however, with some suggesting the service would likely fail.
"The service as it is structured will almost certainly fail, and Bram Cohen knows it," technology writer Matthew Ingram wrote in his Web log Monday, saying DRM would surely prevent the BitTorrent offering from having any measurable success.